Revisiting My Ideal House Plan
18 months ago I wrote about my ideal house. Back then I was still living in my large, suburban, family home, hadn’t yet graduated and didn’t have much of a job. The old plan looked like this:
Things couldn’t be much more different now. I have a job that pays well and I’ve lived 5 minutes outside the city in an apartment with my girlfriend for the better part of a year.
After 8 months living in an apartment my take on ideal living arrangements has changed — but not much. Most of the points I raised in my original post stand true now. Free standing houses beat apartments for windows and backyards, houses are usually much too large, one bathroom is enough, dining rooms are a waste of space, an outdoor area is important. I still agree with all these things and I think my original plan stands up well, I’d happily live alone in it today.
There was one glaring omission from the original plan that I mentioned but didn’t address, the complete lack of storage beyond a single wardrobe. I’m not one to needlessly keep much but often it’s unavoidable and it’s frustrating not having enough space or the right space kind to store things.
That’s the main issue I’ve tried to address in my revised plan but there’s lots of other stuff there too:
At first it looks much bigger, something I’m trying to avoid but note that I’ve included the patio/verandah area in this plan and as one floor is a basement, the overall footprint has only increased about 15%.
The biggest addition is the basement. You’d be hard pressed to find a house in Australia with a basement which is crazy, they’re a great, efficient use of space and could provide respite from the Summer heat. It addresses the lack of storage with the room on the left totally dedicated to it. I imagine lining those walls with shelves and cupboards, all removable to keep that room flexible.
The rest of the basement is multipurpose. It’s somewhat a typical garage space but I don’t own a car and don’t think cars belong inside anyway. Part laundry, part place to keep my bikes, bike paraphernalia, other training equipment and tools.
The door on the right wall of the basement is a typical garage roller door. Having to go to a separate garage or dragging my bike through the apartment sucks when I’m going in and out on bikes 4 times or more every day. I imagine a ramp driveway cut into the ground to get down there. It’s not space efficient but I don’t see another way. That and the space stealing need for stairs are the worst thing about the addition of a basement.
I’ve pulled the study into it’s own room. I have too much computer related stuff that’d clutter up the lounge room area. I also like the idea of totally concentrating on getting things done when in the office and using a laptop outside or on the couch for more “recreational” computing.
Basically it’s the same plan with additional storage and garage space.
Production Notes
Again I’m offering the SVG file to aid others creating floor plans in their favourite vector editor. I’ve found applications like OminGraffle, which should be perfect for things like this, dumb it down to the point where it hinders doing simple things.
